We have taped our meetings at the local level and at council. However, we don't do it because of people backpeddling rather than having the secretary be able to participate in discussions instead of having her head down in a notebook or laptop. This is explained when it's been asked. People do not ask about why often though.
There also is no difference in the discussions from the mundane to the heated. The secretary takes the tapes home to record the minutes. There is no policy to keep the tapes but we did happen to still have it when the local school district came to discuss a change in parent teacher conferences. They publically stated the council had agreed to the changes. The tape showed that no official opinion was given. It helped.

Recently we started taping our meetings. As long as it is announced at the beginning of the meeting that we will be taping the meeting, we were told we are legally within our rights to do that. I have not see any difference with members speaking their opinion at the meetings since we started taping.

We are not supposed to post our minutes until they have been approved at the next meeting. I don't like this but that is what I have to work with. I guess we could start there but it would be helpful if people would listen to what they say and keep their own notes but repeatedly this year this person has said, I didn't say that, I didn't hear that discussion, or you misunderstood what I said-yeah me and the whole room! And it is very frustrating that they drag their feet on everything because of this. Just trying to keep it all inline.

We post our minutes on our website as soon as they have been written. Mind you, we don't have a fancy website, just a page linked to our school's website, but at least it's accessible by people who want to read the minutes before next month's meeting. We also post a hardcopy in our display case at school.

I would be leary of recording discussion. People may tend to hold back in discussion if they know their words are being recorded. Just take good minutes.

Roberts Rules of Order dictates that you do NOT document the content of discussion (ex: "Mrs. Jones said the staff appreciation lunch was too rushed; Ms. Smith disagreed; Sue Thomas wants to have a dinner next time instead...."), only the motion made and its resolution (ex: Sue Thomas made motion to change the next staff appreciation lunch to a dinner. Motion seconded by Mrs. Jones. Discussion. Motion passed.)

And to second what Annie Girl said, make an agenda, post it before the meeting, and stick to it. Be sure to include a time for Open Discussion at the end.

Oh, gotcha. Well then that's a tough situation. Is there a tactful way of talking to this person or is he/she being unreasonable. Maybe at the meeting you can tell people that if they would like something added to the agenda for the following meeting they need to submit a request in writing. That is a "parliamentary" thing so-to-speak. If he/she wants to discuss something then it needs to be added to the agenda, otherwise it would take too much time at the meeting. Would something like that work for him/her?

The minutes aren't approved until the next meeting and the problems are coming up between them or when said person says they didn't get a copy.